CHF

Ok. I put my hand up and admit it. It is all my fault..... the lack of form for some players..... The injuries to key players..... the dodgy selections... the match day coaching and even Oliver's hard tags.....All my fault. I have been travelling over the last 4 weeks or so and have just not been attentive and able to give the team the benefit of my sage advice. I apologise. All down to me. The good news is that I am back in home base, rested and well and ready to watch the team respond to my online presence. I am sure that they will be able to hear me yelling advice from 15,000kms away. The wonders of modern technology. Lever back. Defensive tighter and better structured. Oliver to shake the tag and have a blinder in support of Viney and The Mighty Mississippi (Rivers) Forward line to to perform a smooth as a cat pi**ing on ice. All good and puuuuuuuurfect. Go Dees! A win for the Goodies by 5 goals.

As with the majority of others on here, I see this as a very difficult game to win. However, I do not see it as impossible. Against North we prevailed with a large number of our players underperforming, out of sorts or just plain not looking fit for the task. (why is it that we never look good after a spell?) Defence. Looks as if we will welcome back Lever this week which is a good thing. The defensive structures have looked like a car with a flat tyre while he has been out. It will be good to get the Lever/May partnership back pointing and arguing. I would keep Tomlinson in the team and drop Howes for Lever at this stage. AM-W to debut is a good thing. He has flexibility to fill roles at both ends of the ground and he can cover medium/small defence or Small forward. Interestingly we have three tall defenders that were in the team as forwards last week and we may well need two of them in the team this week to give us tall defensive cover and flexibility. Brisbane have a lot of tall forward players that could bother us. While I believe that our defence will be the key to our chances of an upset, it is the midfield where we need more polish and grunt. If they can work their arses off to pressure at HF and in the middle it will help the defence immeasurably. Midfield. Max needs to lead. Sounds like a strange thing to say, I know. However, last week against North he looked distracted to me. there looked to be a lot going on with him off the ball and it seemed to get to him. Viney always seems to step up when either Oliver or Petracca is out. Last year it was Oliver out. He relishes the responsibility and was great last week. He need a few mates in there. I understand Oliver being tightly tagged and I also hear the voices critical of him and calling for him to be dropped. I have to say that those asking for him to be dropped are judging him by his champion standards of past seasons and not on his contributions for this season which are still of an excellent level. He stays in. I liked Rivers getting a run there and have always thought he should get more of an opportunity in there. Sparrow has to be challenged to step up his game. Ask him to take on more responsibility, use his strength and power a bit more. Salem, ANB, Tholstrup and Woewodin are options to run through there as well depending on the team makeup. With AM-W in the team is there a possibility for Pickett to get more minutes in the middle? If he can be effective in there he may take some of the pressure off the Oliver tag and give him a bit more space to work. We have a lot of flexibilty and options in this area but we need to coaching staff to come up with effective structures and plans to work through both in offense and defense. Forwards.... Hmmm... yes, forwards.... What to say? JVR? Petty? Turner? TMac forward or back? Fristch, Where has he been the last few weeks? Chandler? Kossie more midfield minutes to shore up our stacks there or have him front and center at the drop pf the ball in the forward 50? All questions and not a lot of answers. My thoughts for this week? Persist with JVR and Petty as the two main tall targets and try to work out a way of getting more effective work out of Fristch. TMac in the side as cover forward and back. If Oliver is not effective with a hard tag I would look to play him forward for a bit as long a we get the work out of the rest of the mids. Chandler stays in and is asked to work hard on the pressure in the forward 50. The team? B: Lever, May McVee HB: Bowey, Tomlinson, Salem C: Langdon, Oliver, Windsor HF: Sparrow, JVR, Pickett F: Chandler, Petty, Fristch R: Gawn, Viney, Rivers IC: ANB,TMac, AM-W, Tholstrup, Brown (one of the last two to be sub)

I will take 4 points week in week out any time rather than a loss. I do not care who they are or their ladder position. Anyone, anywhere, any time.give me 4 points. Move on to next week and build on a win.

I do hope that the match committee sit down with a clean sheet of paper and talk and think through the selection strategy for the North game with a clear eye to medium term and long term futures as to what we want to get out of the rest of the season and the next season. I don't believe that we will shelve this season at this stage of the season but will look at the results over the next three games to define a direction for the rest of the season. A possible team for North: B: McVee May McDonald HB: Rivers Tomlinson/Lever Bowey (dependent upon Lever's fitness) C: Langdon Viney Windsor HF: ANB Fullarton Chandler F: Pickett van Rooyen Fritsch R: Gawn Oliver Sparrow Int: Tholstrup/Sestan Jefferson Salem Woewodin Sub: Sestan/Tholstrup Three debutants, Fulleraton, Sestan, Jefferson. Back six select themselves pretty much. No Petty he gets to have a run, back or forward, with Casey. If Lever does not get up, bring in Tomlinson. The guy deserves a game or three. Salem to be a cover for the defence. Langdon and Windsor run the wings. In the middle we have Viney, Oliver and Sparrow as the grunt. In the absence of Petracca I expect Viney to step up. He did last season when Oliver was out. We need him to do the same now. ANB, Pickett, Woewodin and Salem to cover some minutes in the middle. Sestan/ Tholstrup to also rotate through there. With one of them starting as Sub with a view to slotting one in for the other as the game progresses if injuries allow. With the forwards I would bring in both Fullarton and Jefferson. If they kick a couple of goals between them we are ahead of the game. Barring injuries, I would try to keep an unchanged team for the next two matches after that a well. Minimal changes. That is my 2 cents worth.

From Goodwin's presser after the last game I take it that he is admitting that the adjustments that were made to our game plan during the off season have been to the detriment of the team performance. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, the team look to be over coached and hesitant in their play. This may be because they are thinking too much about what they have to do rather than responding to the situation intuitively. Therefore, they do not look to be enjoying their work and positive results are not forthcoming. We now have a break and I hope to hell that the coaching staff are looking to reset the season. Injuries are what they are and we have to work around availability. Team game plans, structures and individual performance and form are all thangs that a coaching panel can have a positive effect on if they are doing their jobs properly. I am sure that they are working on these things. I hope they are successful. Now comes the fun part. I get to harp on about what I think is best and what I would do. as with others on this site, I am working from the outside with limited/no real knowledge except what I have observed. Starting with team selection I would look to play players in positions where they have performed best. Petty/Turner in defence, TMac in the forwards. Turner looks lost in the forward 50 and Petty has just not performed or contributed at all this season as a forward. TMac has looked good in defence but when moved forward, where we have serious deficiencies, kicked a couple of goals and looked to as if he knew what he was doing. The midfield that was our main strength in seasons past is much depleted with the retirement of Brayshaw, the injury to Petracca and the dip in form of Oliver. Viney's form is also not what it was. Viney and Oliver may be victims of the adjustments in game plan. Different roles and priorities at the stoppages? Prior to Petracca's injury we had robbed the midfield by playing him in the forward 50 to try and strengthen and area where we had problems. Another example of playing a player out of their strongest position. The midfield to take the ground against North? Put the wood on Viney and Oliver to step up into driving leadership positions in there and work out ways to benefit from Gawn's dominance at the stoppages. Give Sparrow the opportunity to work more around the ball. I feel he is one that has more to offer in there if given the chance and the confidence. ANB to tag and rotate through there along with Pickett. Both used sparingly as required. With midfield injuries and form the way they are I would look to try a couple of others through there. I would also give Woewodin a run there. I know I have argued to play players in their best performed positions but I would also look to experiment and be prepared to make the moves if the experiments are not working. If the defence is holding up during a match I would look at using Rivers, Salem and possibly McVee through the middle to see if that changes things up. Rivers and McVee are young players that we can develop and both, in my opinion, have attributes that could be worked with to to develop in the midfield. Of the players at Casey I think that over time Tholstrup may become a player but this may not be the time to step him up. might be a bit too much pressure to put on him at this stage. I would be tempted to give Sestan a run. He has been on the list a while and we need to see what he might bring I just don't see Laurie making it. In the games he has played I have just not seen anything to get excited about. We have options and opportunities in the middle of the ground we need to make the best of them. The forward cupboard is still look bare. JVR, a youngster developing his game in the top league. Fristch, as our mainstay scoring opportunity. Pickett needs to work closer to goal and at the feet of he talls where he is really effective. After those three there is SFW as effective forward/goal scorers go. We could try K. Brown, too young?. B. Brown, Knees, too slow? AMW, being played in defence at Casey? We need to get a different look and feel about the team and, above all, we need an effective game plan that will get the players enjoying playing the game once agin.

What was that sound???..... What was it? Sounded a bit like a window closing and being locked...... And that tinkle at the end???... key being thrown away?

We really are a mess. Seems like we dug a hole for ourselves pre-season with the adjustments to the game plan that do not appear to be working. We also persist in playing players out of their position and players get chances even though they are woefully out of form. Bad training, bad selections, bad coaching.... all of that equals bad results. Looking back I do not see one game that we have played well. Recent games have been the worst run of games we have had in the last 5 years or so. There are no excuses, only reasons for the way we play. See above. There had better be some clear thinking and straight talking over the bye. Disgraceful display today.

As I turned the game off at 3/4 times I wondered to myself “How can Melbourne serve up this garbage in a game?” ThenI thought to myself “That is very harsh on Garbage.” In this day and age of Wokefulness I have to express myself more correctly. So, let me be clear. That was the worst performance I have seen in the last 20 years. No qualifications, no excuses.THE worst performance in the last 20 years. That includes the infamous 186 game. At least at that time we had the excuse that we were sh**. I hope the whole club is embarrassed and hurting having served this up. I see this game as the nail in the coffin of the ‘tweaks’ we made to the game plan over the pre-season. It is clear that, either, the adjustments that were made are not working or we do not have the players to execute. If it is the former then we need to revert to our game plan of last season. If it is the later then adjust the structures and plan to the players strengths. I have said this before and I will say it again...... play the players where they are best suited. Petracca in the midfield, Pickett as a forward, TMac as a forward.... Petty in the defensive 50. Goodwin talks of the ability to reset. He and the coaching team need to drive a major reset of the team and the game plan right now. Whatever the present game plan is, it is not working. We have a list with individual talent, skill and footy smarts, it is clear to me that we are not getting the teamwork that is required to drive consistent confidence. I am a supporter of Goodwin but he and his coaching team need to respond. Take responsibility and take the lead. This is looking like a wasted season unless we can turn it around immediately.

Game starts at the ungodly hour of 5am my time so I will most likely be watching later at breakfast and coffee. People coming for lunch so I will celebrate/drown sorrows with some excellent wine and food. Dees to win in AFS by 5 goals and move into 3rd on the ladder.

I would think that one of Brown or Turner on the IC along with Sparrow, Hunter, McVee and Woewodin and Laurie as Sub. I would go with Turner as a forward rather than Brown.

I have not given up on Season '24 as yet. There is till a long way to go. The team need to re-group and re-focus. There was very little teamwork on display over in Perth and we need to get back to running hard in support and to get to position in transition BOTH ways. To me this was the biggest problem. With Lever we lost one of our finger pointers (organisers) early and it seemed to unsettle the defensive 50 big time. The team I would like to see against the Saints is the following: B: Rivers, May, Petty HB: McVee, TMac, Bowey C: Langdon, Petracca, Windsor HF: Mc Adam, JVR, Sparrow FF: Fristch, Fullarton, Pickett Fol: Gawn, Oliver, Viney IC: Chandler, Woewodin, Salem, ANB, Howe Midfield to have Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Sparrow as the main drivers with Petracca to play a majority in the middle. The link between himself and Oliver needs to be re-built. It has been missing this season so far. Guest spots in the middle for Pickett, ANB, Salem, Woewodin and I would like to see Rives given a couple of chances there. Move Petty back into the defensive 50 to partner with May and TMac. he has been ineffectual as a forward so far. Fullarton to get a chance to fill a role. Laurie has had his chances and has not taken them. I would like him to work out but I really doubt he will make it. Jefferson looks too lightweight at this stage and might need a season or two to get the build to make an impact. At some stage I would like to see Sestan, K. Brown and Tholstrup get a run. Hunter and Billings I am not impressed with. Spargo and Melksham to come back from injury to boost the list at some stage.

A tough loss to accept. Once again and has it has been for the last few years, our problem is the forward 50. You might tell me that we have to get the ball in there to know how good/bad the forwards are and that we are just not doing that. I would argue that we are robbing our defence and midfield to patch up the forwards troops. This is to the detriment to 2 out of the three areas of the field. Petty moved into the forward line and, so far in his games this season has done nothing of note. Turner from defence gets a run there and kicks three in his first game there and then nothing. Petracca gets a run up there from an already depleted midfield through the loss of Brayshaw and the depleted midfield is flat and slow and second to the ball. An old adage, but none the less true, it is won and lost in the midfield. We were proud of our ability to reset during games but we have lost our ability to do that. I would like to see a team reset driven by the coaches and selectors. Lever is out next week. Move Petty back there to partner with May. Howe, Rivers, Bowey and McVee to cover the rest. TMac forward with JVR, Frisch, McAdam, Chandler, Pickett. Rest a mid there when required. Midfield, now we get to the nub of the matter. Petracca, Oliver and Viney the main drivers. Two out of the three at each centre bounce. ANB, Sparrow, Salem to get runs there along with Pickett and Rivers as required tactically. I would give Woewodin a chance in there as well and Tholstrup needs to show what he can bring. back to basics....play players where they excell...... and use their positional flexibility as plans B, C and D. play to our strengths in defence and midfield and let the goals arrive from good team structures and play. The ‘tweaks’ we have made this season have not been effective. no rebuild... the building blocks are there..... use them wisely.

I think we will kick up a gear and win this. All we need is more drive from the midfield.

Dreadful display so far. No midfield and no team work.

Good strong team named but still difficult to select the IC and sub from what ha been named. There are a lot of ways that the team could be structured and it might be hard for WC if they are looking to react to our selections. I would have thought that Bowey and Sparrow are definite for the IC along with one of Salem, Woewodin or Tholstrup for the bench and one of the other two for Sub. That would leave one bench position for one of the talls. Damned if I know what way they are going to go. Whoever they name I want to see a much better performance in the first half of this game then the team ha delivered in the last few weeks. Expecting a win but never count my chickens supporting this team. Go Dees!

Very quiet half from Petracca.

Good morning Worid. I’m awake …… and how are we all on this lovely day? Me? Well, thank you for asking. I am confident, very confident. if someone were to walk up to me and ask in a low voice “How are the Dees going to go tonight?” I would stand tall, look them in the eye smile my smile that is almost, but not quite a sneer and respond “Beautifully. Our ground, Our time, Our team. The effing Cats do not stand a chance.” …….. and then I would walk quietly away. Dees to win…. As if you needed to ask.

My hope for this game was that they knock the living suitcase out of each other and fight out a draw. hate 'em both

To appreciate this win and getting the 4 points I only have to look back at the bad old days when we were perennial bottom four. In those days when we had a first half as we did against Richmond we would back it up with an even worse performance in the second half. I can take comfort in the way we re-set at half time and took the game away from the opposition. We were not great in the second half but we did respond to the position of the game in a very positive way and we had the talent and ability to do so. There are a lot of things we could discuss from that performance but I like to look at the positive things. That was a defensive masterclass for the whole of the game. The back 6 were rock solid. Lever and May lead from the front and the rest of the D50 team supported very, very well. Tmac, Rivers, McVee and Howe with a couple of others rotating through there as required. Tmac is back in the backs and looks solid with great movement. I am one that would have had Tomlinson in there before him but I have to say that, on performances to date, the selectors have got it right. Rivers is perfect coming out of the D50. He has speed strength and footy sense to deliver. Once we have a few of the injured back I would like to see him attend a few center bounces. Mc Vee has slotted in there from last season and plays with a maturity that belies his years. Howe, I find, is just amazing with how he has performed so far this season. Does his job, beats his man and moves on to the next challenge without fuss. All this with a couple of our top defenders out with injury. The win against Richmond was built on our solid defensive foundation. Mids were not to be seen until the second half and then they only just sparked. The forwards made the best of what came their way in the second half but a couple of them might be looking over their shoulders at selection time for the team against Geelong. Get out the team sheet and write in the defenders right now and fill in the rest a couple of days before the match.

Very interesting and informative article. In the pre-match thread I posted on the fact that we have had a very mixed start to the season with breaks between games and travel. This has not allowed the team to get into a rhythm so far this season and I think it has been unsettling for them. I also find it interesting that we have played badly in the opening round after the pre-season, the game against Brisbane where we had an extended break after the Adelaide games and then against Richmond after another extended break, in the first half in particular. We have another extended break before the Geelong game and then a 5 day break before Carlton. It will be interesting to see if we can get our heads right to perform 'first up' against the cats and then follow up the next game. Looking back, I think the team set themselves for the two Adelaide games and may have relaxed a bit too much for the follow up game thinking 'job's done'. Against the cats we will have had three days more prep than them.

That is the worst half of kicking turnovers I have seen from MFC ever.

An hour before the bounce and it does not matter where in the world you are, it is still an hour before the bounce. What I want to see this evening is the team 'on' from the first bounce. I want to see us playing the game on our terms and making sure that the Tiges are reacting and on the back foot. The on-field leaders have to do their job of keeping minds concentrating. Pressure, Pressure, Pressure on the ball, the ball carrier and the possible next receivers all over the ground. A team game. Individual performances I will be keeping an eye on: Viney - he has been in great form this season except for the Lions game. I want to see him respond. McVee - just cause I enjoy watching him. Petty - had a couple of games back and there is now no excuse not to perform. Win for the Dees by 6/7 goals.... heart over head? we shall see.

So, Wednesday evening and the team will run out on to the G for a game against the Tiges. I have to say that it has been a strange old start to the season for the boys. A Thursday night in Sydney for the opening round, a 10 day break and then two games at the G with a 6 day break. After those two games we then travelled to Adelaide for games against the two home town teams. A 7 day break for the Port game and then Adelaide after a 5 day break. another 7 day break to get back to the G and played Brisbane followed by a 13day bye round before the Tiges. Looking at that I can see that it must have been very hard for the boys to settle into any sort of rhythm of a constant 6/7 day break between games. I was a bit let down to be going into the break at 4-2 but having looked at the fixtures so far I am much more comfortable. Unfortunately it is not going to get any better in the next few weeks with a 10 day break after the Tiges game and then a 5 day break before the Carlton game game. At least the cats game is at the G and not at Kitty Litter Park. Anyhoooooo it is what it is. Anyone, anytime any place. We should beat the Tiges given their injury list, but you never know. Our match committee might have a brain**rt once again and let the work experience kid make the selections while they attack the cheese boards. Have to admit that I have had a mini break from footy myself while the boys have had a break so I am not at all across the game, except that it will be at the G in the middle of the week. Dees to win... by a lot.

Reading the comments on this thread the most used word looks to be ‘disappointing’ … and no one can argue with that one-word summation. It was a disappointment on so many levels. Our team structure never looked like appearing during the game. I noted in the preview I wrote that the game would be won in the midfield but I never imagined that one midfield would be so dominant. Between the arcs I would say we won one position and drew, possibly, two others with the rest of the game in this area of the field comprehensively won by the Lions. The wings, Langdon and Windsor, matched, or almost matched their counterparts and Max was our only winner. Max’s tap work was very good, but our midfield was non-existent at his feet. So much so that in the later stages of the match he was taking the ball and trying to clear it himself or belting it as far away from the contest as possible to try and get some breathing space. Petracca was the best of a bad lot, Viney subdued and Oliver about 10% of his usual effectiveness due to his hand injury. The rest of the rotations through there with Salem’s early hamstring were ineffectual. We were out played, out manned and out pressured. It is all very well to say that is not the way we play the game and scratch your head over it all but that is not good enough in this circumstance. The team and the coaching panel need to work through this and come up with answers, not excuses. Oliver should not play again until his injured hand is healed. The midfield needs to be looked at with a re-visit to the drawing board to ensure we are playing the best fittest players in their strongest positions. With such a performance from the midfield I cannot be critical of either our defence, which was under constant pressure all night, nor our attack, which did not see the ball in their half of the ground for about 2/3 of the night. I feel that both of these groups of players did ok in the circumstances. Work needs to be done on the midfield and questions need to be asked of the performance of the coaching panel in the leadup to the game and during the match. A break and then Richmond next where the footy world will be watching for a response from us. Talking about it will not get us anywhere.

Any ideas coming out of the coaches box this evening? have not seen any positive moves they might have made. How about swapping petty and Tmac for a quarter? we might get a bit more out of Petty at least.